


Be Afraid Of The Big Bad Man In The Forest

by Written_On_The_Trees



Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [28]
Category: Yungblud (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Little Red Riding Hood Fusion, Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, October Prompt Challenge, Prompt Fic, Red Riding Hood Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2020-10-27
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:33:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27235039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Written_On_The_Trees/pseuds/Written_On_The_Trees
Summary: Day 27 of my 31 October Writing Prompts. Prompt:Fairy Tale.Scarlet has never liked the forest surrounder her home town, even though she'd never had a specific reason to. Today she gets one.
Relationships: Dominic Harrison | Yungblud/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Trees' October 2020 Writing Challenge [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949572
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	Be Afraid Of The Big Bad Man In The Forest

Scarlet swallowed as she stood in front of the forest, trying to choke down her swallows, and not quite managing it.

The woods had always made her feel…uncomfortable.

She didn’t know why; the path she usually took through the trees was clear enough, and so long as she didn’t leave it until too late in the day it wasn’t even dark. There were wolves that lived there, but like anyone in their small town, Scarlet knew that so long as she didn’t get between them and their pups or their food, then the worst they would do was follow her at a distance: curious but not enough to get too close.

Really, there was no logical reason for them to freak her out.

_But that didn’t make me more comfortable like it should do._

Knowing that it would only get worse the longer she left it, Scarlet squared her shoulders and headed into the woods. She refused to be scared by some trees and bushes and deer…but she did leave one headphone hanging out of her ear. It wasn’t because she was scared; it was because she was sensible. Even if there was no reason for her to be uncomfortable in the forest, only tourists and idiots got complacent.

Her bright red coat would make her blindingly obvious to anything and everything that wanted to avoid her, but as unlikely as it was, it never hurt to pay attention in case there was something that _didn’t_ want to avoid her.

She walked along the path at a brisk pace, trying to ignore the feeling skittering down her spine and just get to her grandmother’s so she could drop off the big Tupperware box of baked goods her mum had packed up this morning. She half-way managed it to begin with, but the deeper she walked into the woods the worse it got.

It _really_ wasn’t helped by coming across another person.

Just the sight of him alone was enough to nearly make her have a heart attack. Almost nobody came along this path - especially strangers, and this man was definitely a stranger. Scarlet knew she would’ve recognised that shock of vibrant red hair if it had belonged to anyone from the town. And as if his mere presence wasn’t just enough, he was just standing in the middle of the path: looking up at the trees with an expression Scarlet wasn’t quite sure she could place…

_Predatory_.

She didn’t know which part of her brain whispered the word, but once she’d heard it, it fit perfectly. Even when the man turned to look to her, when his face lost its sharp expression and morphed into a friendly, easy-going smile, there was still something dangerous underneath the charm, something that told Scarlet that she really didn’t want to be on her own with him. Whoever he was, he was dangerous, not to be trusted, no matter how pretty his smile was.

“Another person! I was wondering if I was the only one out here!” he said, in what Scarlet was meant to be a friendly greeting, if the excitable tone it was delivered in was any indication.

She didn’t like it, but didn’t want to risk being rude to him in case he was some kind of mass murderer: “Well, I wouldn’t want to interrupt your solitude. I’ll just scoot past you - ”

Internally cursing the narrowness of the path at this point, Scarlet tried to pass round the red-head with as much space between them as possible - something he made no effort to help with, remaining smack bang in the middle of the path and watching her with a sweet smile and sharp eyes.

The look only made her more determined to get away from him.

“ - and then I’ll be on my way. Don’t want to keep my nan waiting.” Scarlett forced a smile onto her face, hoping it would pass for amused: “I’ve got a precious delivery of fresh baked goods to make, I can’t be late for that.”

Whether the man bought it or not, Scarlet couldn’t tell, but she could tell that there was something in his chuckle that reminded her of the chuffing sounds she’d seen as a kid in a documentary about the wolves that lived in the forest: “I wouldn’t dare come between someone and some good home baking. God knows I’m bad enough when someone tries to get between me and food.”

“I can completely relate.” Scarlet responded, even though based on the way he’d said it she was guessing she really wouldn’t: “Well, I’ll leave you to the forest! Have a good day.”

The man nodded his goodbye to her and let her leave, but Scarlet could feel his eyes digging into her back until she was out of sight.

As soon as she was, she picked up the pace. She’d worked hard to act like everything was natural while the man could see her, not wanting him to know that she’d picked up on any weirdness _(or not wanting to cause any weirdness if it had all been in her head)_ , but once she’d checked over her shoulders a few times and confirmed that he wasn’t following her, all bets were off. She almost ran back to her grandmothers, fingers fumbling with her keys when she tried to let herself in, adrenaline surging through her until she finally managed to unlock the door and let herself inside.

She didn’t relax until the door was shut and then bolted behind her - and even then, she went straight to a window to make sure there was no hint of the red hair of the man she’d met on the path.

She certainly didn’t see anything…but somehow she got the feeling that that didn’t mean much.

There had been something very, very strange about that man: something that had made some hind part of Scarlet’s brain sit up and pay attention. She still didn’t know what it was: the fact she didn’t know him, the odd position she’d found him in, just standing in the middle of a forest path: or the fact that his eyes had been far too sharp for her to feel comfortable with, but that man had scared her. He wasn’t normal, and Scarlet wasn’t convinced that her not seeing him didn’t mean that he wasn’t there.

“Scarlet? Scarlet, sweetheart, is everything okay?” her grandmother hustled into the room: “You didn’t call out as you came in.”

It was then when Scarlet saw the knife that her grandmother was holding - not a kitchen knife, but an ornate silver thing with a wolf’s head carved into the hilt: “Nana, why are you holding a knife?”

Her grandmother looked down at it in surprise, as if she was surprised to be still holding it: “I didn’t know who had come in.”

Scarlet supposed that that was fair enough: “Everything’s fine, I just…I just ran into a really weird man in the forest. Nothing happened, he was just…weird.”

“Was it someone from town? I can always ask your dad to drive you up here if one of the boys from school is giving you any trouble.”

“No, he wasn’t from my school. I didn’t recognise him at all, actually.”

Scarlet’s grandmother stiffened, then immediately came to look out of the window…with her hand clenched around the knife.

“Nana, what’s - ”

“I’m going to call your dad to come and get you.” her grandmother cut her off, uncharacteristically curt: “You shouldn’t be walking home with strangers around.”

Scarlet didn’t argue, because she knew one of her parents would be coming to pick her up anyway…but when her dad appeared just ten minutes later, grim-faced and silent, Scarlet realised that whatever had spooked her grandmother had apparently scared her father just as badly. He broke every speed limit on the way home, and hustled her into the house as quickly as he could once they got home. Her mother was equally concerned, waiting by the front door to open it right before Scarlet could even knock.

But neither of them said a word.

It was terrifying.

Wanting to get away from it, Scarlet headed up to her room. She looked out of her bedroom window…only to see a square of white paper pinned to a tree on the edge of the forest that bordered on her family’s back garden, almost glowing with how starkly pale it was in the twilight.

Nothing about it was reassuring.

But in spite of that, Scarlet grabbed a meat knife from the kitchen, and tucked it into the sleeve of her bright red coat before sneaking out the back door to go and grab the letter. She yanked it off the tree and unfolded it, eyes scanning over the brief message scrawled across the paper.

**_See you soon, Miss Red Coat._ **

Scarlet looked up to see if there was any shock of red hair she could see amongst the trees, but there was nothing…nothing but a sharp pair of hazel eyes, watching her from out of a patch of shadow under a bush. Predatory eyes.

Scarlet put the letter in her pocket and headed inside, not looking over her shoulder once, too afraid of what she’d see. She locked the doors, headed up to her room, and closed the curtains so that no-one would be able to see in.

Then she phoned her grandmother.

_I need answers._


End file.
